Thursday evening: Commenting on stories in the news.

1. I have always had a soft spot for Alex Rodriguez. Yes, he has done some stupid stuff on the field, but I think he has gotten a bum rap in New York. I think he's a great player, and I think folks will appreciate him when he breaks the all-time home run record. Also, I will always blame Boras for the Game 7 fiasco. Some I am bemused he is negotiating on his own -- well, with his wife -- and I am intrigued by the angle here.

From The New York Times:

Alex Rodriguez could get a new contract from the Yankees that pays him at least $300 million if Rodriguez breaks Barry Bonds’s career home run record, according to two people involved with the negotiations.

Rodriguez and his wife, Cynthia, met with Hank and Hal Steinbrenner on Wednesday in Tampa, Fla. Rodriguez told the Steinbrenners that he wanted to stay with the Yankees, and a contract for 10 years and $270 million to $275 million could be finalized soon.

The sides are discussing a marketing plan in which Rodriguez, 32, would benefit financially as he passes hallowed home run benchmarks in the coming seasons. The Yankees typically do not offer bonuses to players who make the All-Star team or win postseason awards. But Rodriguez’s pursuit of the career home run record would bring increased revenue to the Yankees, and the team is willing to share some of it with Rodriguez who has 518 home runs and is already 17th on the career list. If he passes Babe Ruth, who had 714 homers, and Hank Aaron, who had 755, he would trail only Bonds, who has 762.

2. How many of Barry Bonds' problems stem simply from the fact that he's a total assole?

Also from The New York Times:

Barry Bonds, who holds both of Major League Baseball’s most cherished home-run records, was indicted today on four counts of perjury in connection with his testimony about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, his lawyer said.

He was also indicted on one count of obstruction of justice.

Whispers about Mr. Bonds’s record-setting performances — becoming the career home-run leader with 762 this past season and the single-season record-holder with 73 home runs in 2001 — grew louder because of his links with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. The lab, also known as Balco, has been the subject of a four-year federal investigation on illegal steroid use. Other athletes, including Olympian Marion Jones, have pleaded guilty in connection with the case.

3. I don't know much about accounting practices, but I am still amazed you could sock away $30 grand a year for a decade.

Tufts University's director of student activities, an 11-year employee of the college, has been fired in the wake of accusations that she embezzled an estimated $300,000 from the university, a Tufts official said today.

Confronted with the allegations, Jodie Nealley admitted to Tufts officials last week that she took at least a portion of the money, university officials said. The allegations stunned the officials as well as student leaders, who were told of Nealley's firing late Wednesday afternoon. Nealley was an incredible mentor, student leaders said.

I thought it was also pretty cool that while this story was in the Boston Globe, it was the student newspaper that broke the story.

4. I don't know anything about this case, but based on this one paragraph on the Chicago Tribune page, this guy oughta be shot.

Appearing on NBC this morning, Drew Peterson said his missing wife Stacy asked for a divorce "on a regular basis," and the timing of the requests was "based on her menstrual cycle."

5. Until money no longer says "In God We Trust," and the president doesn't take the oath with his hand on the Bible, using the word God, decisions like this will continue to annoy the hell out of me. More Chicago Tribune.

A federal judge today issued a preliminary injunction barring a suburban school district from implementing the state's new law mandating a moment of silence at the start of classes, calling the statute too vague and "likely unconstitutional."

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman made the decision at a hearing on a lawsuit brought by local atheist activist Rob Sherman over issues related to the separation of church and state. Sherman sued Township High School District 214, in which his daughter is a freshman at Buffalo Grove High School.

Gettleman asked the parties in the case to return to the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse Thursday when he could consider making the injunction statewide. The Illinois attorney general's office is considering stepping into the litigation.

Thursdat evening: Round Two

1. Do I know my audience or what?

2. I think Thomas Friedman is one of the great journalists of our generation.

He can nail things in a single sentence.

Two dates — two numbers. Read them and weep for what could have, and should have, been. On Sept. 11, 2001, the OPEC basket oil price was $25.50 a barrel. On Nov. 13, 2007, the OPEC basket price was around $90 a barrel.

The rest is at the New York Times web site.

3. Yes, I spent a lot of time at the New York Times. I found this story absolutely fascinating.

GALVESTON, Tex., Nov. 13 — Jurors heard opening arguments on Tuesday in the trial of a bird-watching enthusiast who fatally shot a cat that he said was stalking endangered shorebirds.

The defendant, James M. Stevenson, is the founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society and leads bird-watching tours on this Gulf Coast island 60 miles southeast of Houston. If convicted on animal cruelty charges in the shooting last November, he faces up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Mr. Stevenson, 54, does not deny using a .22-caliber rifle fitted with a scope to kill the cat, which lived under the San Luis Pass toll bridge, linking Galveston to the mainland. He also admits killing many other cats on his own property, where he operates a bed and breakfast for some of the estimated 500,000 birders who come to the island every year.

The whole story is here

4. Who is going to be at Bjorn's Ceilidh Saturday?

5. I had a really good start to the day today. I was going in late because I worked late yesterday (neat concept), and I had to bring alethea_eastrid to work. I got all the dishes done, the recycling and the trash bagged, and cleaned up the kitchen. I was pleased.

6. The Jimmy Fund, the official charity of the 2006 World Champion Boston Red Sox, is having a very cool auction. Check it out.

7. Oh, and if you bring a recipe with you to use as a shopping list, don't throw it out when you get home.